DIY bookkeeping vs hiring someone: the real math for BC owners
Doing your own books is free until you count your own hours, the missed deductions and the CRA penalties. Here is how the numbers usually land.
Plenty of owners do their own bookkeeping well. Plenty more think they are, right up until the year-end file comes back with a list of questions. The decision is not about ability — it is about what your hours are worth and how much risk you want to carry.
Count the hours honestly
A business with 100–200 transactions a month usually needs 4–8 hours to keep current, plus GST filing time each quarter. If your own billable rate is $60 an hour, that is $300–$500 a month of your time — often more than a bookkeeping fee, and it is time spent at the kitchen table on a Sunday rather than earning.
The costs that do not show up on an invoice
- Missed input tax credits you never claimed because the receipt vanished
- Interest and penalties on a GST return filed a few weeks late
- Payroll remittance penalties, charged on the full amount owing
- Accountant cleanup hours at premium rates every spring
- Decisions made off a bank balance instead of a real profit figure
When DIY genuinely makes sense
Side business, under 30 transactions a month, no payroll, not GST registered, and you already reconcile monthly in QuickBooks or Xero? Keep going — we would rather set you up properly and check in once a year than sell you something you do not need.
When it is time to hand it over
- You are GST registered and filings feel like a scramble
- You have employees or subcontractors to pay
- You are more than two months behind
- A lender, landlord or investor wants current statements
- You have stopped opening the CRA mail
A middle option most owners miss
You do not have to choose all or nothing. We often take on GST filing and payroll only, leaving daily categorization with you — or run the books monthly while you keep invoicing in-house. Our quote calculator prices the pieces you actually want.